Notting Hill 43, 2024

The source photograph for Notting Hill 43 was taken by me on a recent self-directed residency in the UK. During that time, I engaged in a walking methodology by making studies of the dwellings in and around Notting Hill. My recent Honour’s research investigated orientation and finding my bearings through the materiality of oil paint and through a lens of queer subjectivity. As a queer person growing up in Australian heteronormative culture, my lived experiences have generated a sense of ill-fit that is ever-present. This position has motivated me to explore a practice that investigates how I can cultivate and convey orientation and a sense of belonging in my work. Georgian staircases are something of a reoccurring motif in my practice and are symbolic of the up-and-down, back-and-forth nature of being queer. This composition is an expanded transcription of two works previously made by me in recent exhibitions. I enjoy the sense of burgeoning familiarity that occurs in transcribing foreign spaces by revisiting a previously made work and painting it again. This is a technique that was gifted to me by the legendary drawing lecturer Christopher Orchard. Repetition through material mark-making and the application of paint speaks to the discipline and multiplicities inherent in my queer painting practice. Through my research, I have come to see the act of painting as an extension of my bodily self. The methodology of Queer Phenomenology has encouraged me to see parts of myself in my work as a kind of extension of self and a mirror looking back. In the work, my reoccurring green and white striped motif is present on the third stair riser down, acting as a non-human alter ego. Its presence enables me as the artist to step back and enjoy physical anonymity whilst the stripe takes up space and attractions attention.

Brenton John Drechsler (he/him) is an Australian emerging visual artist. He was born in Campbelltown, South Australia on Kaurna Country in December of 1981. He spent his childhood in Holden Hill, South Australia. Drechsler studied at TAFE SA, from 2006 to 2010 and completed an Advanced Diploma in Fashion Design and Technology. In his graduating year, he won the 2010 TAFE SA Student of the Year award and a financial scholarship to participate in industry events in Hong Kong in 2011. Drechsler was self-employed as a fashion designer until 2015. From 2015 to 2020, he was employed as a cabin crew for Qantaslink. Drechsler commenced his Bachelor of Visual Arts at Adelaide Central School of Art in 2018. He completed this in 2022. In 2023, Drechsler completed an Honours year at Adelaide Central School of Art, achieving a First Class result.